Metroid Metal, a band which provides a “celebration and interpretation of the Metroid soundtrack” will be performing in Houston, Texas this September. Panzer Dragoon Saga composer Saori Kobayashi will also be performing at the concert as a special guest. From the blog post:

Metroid Metal is headed to Houston, TX for the very first time thanks to REPLAY – Sept 2, 2018. Join us for our 15th birthday jam party fest featuring Darren Korb w/Ashley Barret (Bastion) and Danimal Cannon (chip majesty). Also, coming from Japan (!!) is special guest Saori Kobayashi, composer of the Panzer Dragoon series. Well that’s hecka neat.

Some fans have reported that they’ve received the vinyl edition of “Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga 20th Anniversary Arrangement” which had previously been delayed. Here’s an unboxing video from YouTube user SkillJim showing off the vinyls in all their purple glory:

A new build of Cxbx-Reloaded, an Xbox emulator for Windows, has been released which runs Panzer Dragoon Orta significantly better than previous efforts. Some new footage has been released showing almost the entire first episode running on the emulator:

The Cxbx-Reloaded project began its life as a fork of the older Cxbx emulator, but with added 64-bit support. Cxbx-Reloaded is under active development, so support for Panzer Dragoon Orta may improve over time. You can follow the project over on GitHub.

On the 30th of April 1998, several months after it’s Japanese debut, Panzer Dragoon Saga was released in North America.

To celebrate, Polygon has released a massive article discussing the game with former members of Team Andromeda called Panzer Dragoon Saga: An oral history. The article includes a video of former Panzer Dragoon Saga character designer Katsumi Yokota sketching the story’s heroine, Azel, along with numerous comments from the original team, including what they would like to see in a continuation of the series. These words from Panzer Dragoon Saga director Yukio Futatsugi stood out for me:

At the beginning, I envisioned it to be something like [thatgamecompany’s] Journey. But we didn’t go that route, because we figured nobody would want to play a game so open and distant from the original Panzer Dragoons. But I feel that now something like that might be accepted. Of course, I would keep the dragon in the game, but the focus would be more on riding the dragon and exploring the world, and the player would find traces of the previous games within this universe. The game would be like a remake of the entire series and flash back to the originals. That’s just what comes to mind. The core members of the Orta team work at [Futatsugi’s company] Grounding now. But I think everyone would like to revisit Panzer Dragoon again. I’d like to tie up any loose ends and complete the saga before I die.

Journey is my second favourite video game (after Panzer Dragoon Saga), so it’s exciting to read that Futatsugi would consider an abstract game like it set in the Panzer Dragoon world.

Xbox Live Fr has posted a video comparing Panzer Dragoon Orta running on the original Xbox compared to what is currently the most advanced way to play the game: on Microsoft’s new Xbox One X console.

As you can see from the video, the Xbox One X version looks quite incredible running at 4K. There’s no question in my mind that, visually at least, Panzer Dragoon Orta has stood the test of time very well when running on modern hardware.

Panzer Dragoon Orta is now playable on Xbox One, via backward compatibility. If you have your original Xbox disc you’ll be able to experience the game with a resolution upgrade on the Xbox One family consoles. Draikin has shared some screenshots and a video of the game running on a regular (not Xbox One X) console, but as you can see the resolution upgrade still makes the game look significantly more impressive.

If you want learn more about the new Panzer Dragoon Orta experience, there’s an active topic on our forum which includes links to footage of the game.

PAL Xbox 360 users who tried using the console’s backward compatibility to play Panzer Dragoon Orta may remember that the game crashed at the start of Episode 4. In a surprise move, Microsoft has now apparently patched this bug, as pointed out by Kimimi on Twitter who posted screenshots of the game’s transition from Episode 3 to Episode 4 on a PAL Xbox 360. In the past the game would always crash there, but a 6MB update that will be installed when you start the game while connected to Xbox Live finally resolves this problem.

It’s reasonable to assume that this is the result of Microsoft working on the Xbox One backward compatibility for the game, and apparently in doing so they figured out the problem with the PAL version and backported the fix to the Xbox 360. While it would have been nice had they fixed the problem all those years ago, it’s still a pleasant surprise to see them update the game now. Better late than never!

Microsoft has announced another batch of Original Xbox games that will be made playable on the Xbox One, and Panzer Dragoon Orta is one of them! Released back in 2002, it was the last game in the main Panzer Dragoon series and arguably one of the best railshooters ever made. Fusing elements from both the previous railshooter games and the RPG Panzer Dragoon Saga, Panzer Dragoon Orta offered an impressive amount of replayability with plenty of unlockable content, including the PC port of the original Panzer Dragoon!

According to Microsoft, all of the newly announced Original Xbox games will have up to 4X the pixel count on Xbox One and Xbox One S, and up to 16X the pixel count on Xbox One X. It’ll be interesting to see the results of that for Panzer Dragoon Orta, which supported an (at the time impressive) 480P resolution combined with a 60fps framerate.

Starting April 17, you’ll be able to play the game through the original disc if you already own it, or you can purchase it digitally in the Microsoft Store.

YouTube channel Ludodrome has released a 38 minute video that goes over the complete history of the Panzer Dragoon series.

From the video:

The series is a historical curosity, an object of nostalgia at this point. Rail shooters are a relic of a bygone era and have little relevance in this day and age. The series’ towering achievement - Panzer Dragoon Saga - is both too obscure and too difficult to remake or port. At least there’s emulation. The Panzer Dragoon series is too unique, too charming, and too beautiful to be so forgotten. What could easily have been a bog-standard arcade shooter blossomed into something special because of the determination of Team Andromeda to make something no one had ever seen before: arcade shooters as fast and fun as any other in the genre but delivered with literary and cinematic panache far ahead of their time. And what’s more they went on to create one of the greatest RPGs of all time, one that anyone with the slightest interest in the genre owes themselves to play.

The whole video is well worth a watch for those wanting a summary of the Panzer Dragoon series’ development and it’s legacy.

Panzer Dragoon creator Yukio Futatsugi writes about how he aims to make some of the magic found in older games return with The Good Life:

A long time ago, I used to believe that games had magic in them. A new game always brought me a brand new experience, and excitement as to what would happen next. Crazy things would happen, and it felt really like I had fallen under some sort of spell. But lately, the risks involved in creating new games have gotten more and more extreme, and it’s becoming harder and harder to make magic games. SWERY and I want to bring that magic back - but we need to borrow a little mana from you in order to summon it. We want to show the world a kind of magic it’s never seen.

Panzer Dragoon World has posted a new interview with Panzer Dragoon Saga composer Saori Kobayashi. Interview topics include her favourite tracks and games, Tomonori Sawada (Panzer Dragoon Zwei composer)’s involvement with “Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga 20th Anniversary Arrangement”, and how the original Panzer Dragoon Saga soundtrack was created. From the interview:

For the original game, I used Roland and E-mu sound samples. When implementing them into the Saturn, we ran into data size limitations, which restricted how we could use the sounds in the game. We downgraded the sound quality and performed various processes in order to create the soundtrack. Nowadays, I can totally control the kind of sound I want in the game, so that is quite fun and convenient, but if that were true back in the 90s, then perhaps the unique sound attributed to that era may never have been created.

The interview confirms that Saori Kobayashi is not currently planning a re-arrangement album for the tracks that were missing from “Resurrection”, but she is interested in working on future Panzer Dragoon projects.

If you pre-ordered the CD version of “Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga 20th Anniversary Arrangement” there’s good news: Brave Wave has reported that the CD is now shipping worldwide.

The CD version of “Resurrection” is available to purchase from Fangamer (North America), BigWax (Europe), and Ebten (Japan). The digital version was released on the day of Panzer Dragoon Saga’s 20th anniversary and the vinyl is expected to ship on the 9th of April.

Reilly Farrell from VGMO (Video Game Music Online) has posted a review of the new Panzer Dragoon Saga arrangement album. Since there hasn’t been many reviews of “Resurrection” I thought I’d share this one with you all. From the review:

Panzer Dragoon Saga‘s original soundtrack was an achievement in game music unlike anything that came before it. Twenty years later, that soundtrack is still unlike anything that came after its time – and, twenty years later, Saori Kobayashi still has plenty of fresh perspective for the music she composed so long ago. Resurrection succeeds not only in transitioning old tracks into a new age, but also in reworking a selection of pieces in an unexpected style. Whether or not Panzer Dragoon Saga is a part of your gaming past, Resurrection is a gorgeous arrangement album that deserves your attention.

Digital Foundry has released a retro episode looking at the technical aspects of the Sega Saturn classics Panzer Dragoon and it’s sequel Panzer Dragoon Zwei, along with their spin off titles. The video features music from “Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga 20th Anniversary Arrangement”.

Panzer Dragoon Saga and Panzer Dragoon Orta will be covered in a future video.

SEGA has released the original soundtracks of the four main Panzer Dragoon games on digital stores such as iTunes and Amazon Music. Not only is this the first time that SEGA has released these soundtracks digitally, but the covers and tracklists have been translated into English too; previously only the Panzer Dragoon Orta Official Soundtrack, along with the Sega Ages and vinyl releases of Panzer Dragoon’s soundtrack were translated.

Note, this is the first time that the Panzer Dragoon Saga original soundtrack has been named after the English language version of the game.

The new albums are available from the links above in English, and there’s also Japanese versions of each soundtrack. The covers are the same, except for Panzer Dragoon Saga’s cover, which uses the game’s Japanese title instead.

Right now, these newly released digital soundtracks are only available to purchase, not rented. For example, they can be purchased from iTunes, but not streamed with an Apple Music subscription. This has been the case for other SEGA soundtracks such as that of Skies of Arcadia which has only been available on the former service for some time. So, don’t count on these original soundtracks coming to Apple Music if this trend is set to continue (update: the Skies of Arcadia soundtrack is reportedly on Spotify, so there may be hope yet). But in any case, let’s be glad that the soundtracks are now easy to listen to without having to resort to eBay or piracy. Thanks SEGA!

Brave Wave has reported that “Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga 20th Anniversary Arrangement” is now available on streaming subscription services such as Apple Music and Spotify, along with being available to purchase from digital music stores such as iTunes and Amazon. Previously the re-imagined Panzer Dragoon Saga soundtrack was only available digitally on Bandcamp.

It’s been a week since Panzer Dragoon Saga turned twenty and fans of the classic Saturn RPG have been celebrating in all sorts of ways. A number of articles about the game and the new re-arranged album “Resurrection” have been posted on various websites.

Ben Lindbergh from The Ringer has written a detailed piece called The Ruinous Road of Gaming’s Missing Masterpiece. He says, “Twenty years after its creation, it also remains nearly impossible to play, a cult classic whose elusiveness mirrors the misery that suffused its development, setting, and story.” The article is in part based on correspondence with Chris Lucich and Matt Underwood, the game’s localisation team from Sega of America. A great read for any fan of Panzer Dragoon Saga wanting to know more about how the game was localised.

There’s also another article discussing Yukio Futatsugi’s ideas for a remake of Panzer Dragoon Saga (purely hypothetical). He imagines an online component, like Dark Souls, but where the content of each player’s game is a different parallel world. Multiple divine visitors influencing each other’s version of the world via Sestren perhaps? He also says that he would make a Panzer Dragoon Saga remake open world and allow the player to make their own choices. “Make a strong correlation between the characters’ responses and behaviors and the player’s actions, so that the characters change depending on the player’s choices,” he says. All this sounds intriguing and it’s a shame that its probably too expensive for any publisher to consider.

Finally, Brave Wave has posted on Twitter thanking everyone who helped make the anniversary album an “astounding success”. There’s more news from Brave Wave too: there will be a Saori Kobayashi concert at Universal Fan Con in Baltimore this year, featuring music from Panzer Dragoon Saga. The game we remember may have ridden off into the sunset on the Saturn twenty years ago, but legacy of Panzer Dragoon Saga is alive and well.

Today marks the 20th anniversary since the original release of Panzer Dragoon Saga! To celebrate, you can now listen to the full album of “Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga 20th Anniversary Arrangement”, a 20 track compilation of the game’s music rearranged by original composer Saori Kobayashi.

Twenty years… has it really been that long? This anniversary brings to mind a quote from Gash from near the end of Panzer Dragoon Saga, when all hope seemed to be lost:

Without any fire power, what can we do? All is lost. I can’t go after Sestren. Protecting the people of this village comes first. We’ve lost this time, but we’ll have another chance. 20, 30 years… If we’re lucky.

You can pre-order a digital version of the album (in the usual Bandcamp formats), as well as a CD or vinyl version. The album is a single bilingual release, and the full version will be released on the 29th of January, the 20th anniversary of the Japanese release of Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG. More details are available on Brave Wave’s website. And you can expect a full review from yours truly on the 29th.

By rearranging the album this time, I was able to achieve the kind of music that I wanted to do 20 years ago. This project allowed me to achieve things that weren’t possible then.

Interestingly, she’s interested in releasing a similar album based on the Panzer Dragoon Orta soundtrack as well as revisiting some of the Panzer Dragoon Saga tracks that didn’t make it into “Resurrection” due to time constraints. Let’s see what the future holds!

As you can see, there are two covers, one bearing the title “Resurrection: Azel Panzer Dragoon RPG 20th Anniversary Arrangement Soundtrack”, named after the Japanese release of the game. The presence of a second cover means that there will likely be at least two versions of album.